Real Salt Lake collapsed into a 2-1 loss against Portland Timbers at Rio Tinto Stadium after a missed penalty and a directionless final third of the match.
A 25th-minute penalty for a handball, called late on video review, gave RSL an opportunity to open the match strongly.
Instead, Albert Rusnak hit the ensuing penalty low and to his left, but it was sent too slowly to be of any efficacy, and Portland goalkeeper Steve Clark parried the ball out for an RSL corner kick.
RSL conceded the opener in the 35th minute, with Portland’s Sebastian Blanco finishing past Andrew Putna following some poor defensive organization from the home side.